More protein? PART 1

There are still people who believe that we should consume more meat and fewer cereal products. Loren Cordain, evolutionist biologist from Colorado State University, Fort Collins, USA, is one of the rdent propagators of the more meat diet . And Dr. Atkins, in his longer appeared book, claims that humanity is not well suited for glucides and that in order to be healthy, we should eat more meat and fat.

Those who claims such diets say that, 1.7 million years ago, mankind has learned the art of hunting and that since then ws eaten a lot mammoth meat, bison brain and maybe tiger liver.

Of course, no one can bring any evidence to support this claim. And regarding to esckimos, which are given as example of population that is predominantly feeding with seals, whales, polar bisons, reindeer and fish, we must say that the example is not very encouraging. Eskimos does not excel by longevity or an enviable health; on the contrary, these presents a high frequency of brain hemorrhage and have the most cases of osteoporosis, because of the high consumption of animal protein.

Loren Cordain also claims that agriculture and the possibility to transform cereals in a easily accessible source of nutrients became possible only 12,000 years ago, or maybe less time in the Middle East, and only 200 years in Australia, with the arrival of europeans. Before, says Cordain, the effort would have been too big to gather the and milled seeds in order to become digestible. I leave to the reader’s appreciation the seriousness and credibility of these arguments.

Epidemiologists tell us something else. A study published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (vol. 70, p. 5168) conducted on 28,000 vegetarians and 48,000omnivores, shows that in the 10 years of follow up, the risk of vegetarians dying of cardiovascular disease including heart attack, it was 24% lower than that of nonvegetarians. And those was vegetarians who consume dairy products, and the fatty acids saturation from milk increase the cholesterol more than meat stearic acid animal fats. The difference, regarding heart attack mortality, is even greater when compared meat consumers to real vegetarians.

Numerous other studies provide compelling evidence that the apostles of meat-rich diet are altogether mistaken. Katharine Milton, anthropologist at the University of California at Berkeley, USA, uses an even more assertive tone. In the journal Evolutionary Anthropology (l999, vol. 8, p. II), she writes: “If the americans think they should eat more fat and animal protein, then they are absolutely crazy. ” Comments are superfluous.

Unfortunately, for the majority of the world population, meat means prosperity. “A chicken in every pot” and “Two cars in every garage “were the slogans election of 30s America. And today, where industrialization raised the life standard, humanity uses prosperity to do what poverty was making only when could consume more meat products. This is how, worldwide, the consumption of meat, eggs and dairy is in a rapid growth. Currently, in the developing countries, is consumed 50% more meat per person than in 1983. This means a “revolution of livestock “as significant as the” green revolution, “which boosted the cereal production in 1960. The economists and agronomists fear that the livestock multiplying will be the beginning of disaster. To produce more meat, should be given more grains to animals. The question is whether we can grow the grain production so that remain sufficient bread or concoctions for the millions deprived of food.